Advocates for Workplace Fairness

A Crackdown on Caregiver Discrimination

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Outten & Golden LLP, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union, we represented six women police officers who sued their employer, claiming that its policy barring officers from light-duty assignments—like working a desk job—while they were pregnant violated the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and New York’s Human Rights Law.

After seven days oftestimony and deliberation in Lochren v. County of Suffolk, the jury returned verdicts for the plaintiffs and awarded damages. But most important to our clients, shortly after the trial, the department began allowing pregnant officers to receive light-duty assignments if they submitted a request for such an assignment along with a doctor’s note verifying their pregnancy.